Feeney rues costly Stanaway/Le Brocq clash

Broc Feeney admits a victory slipped away in the opening race at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint after being caught up with early stopper.

Feeney got the jump from pole position, and led Cam Waters throughout the first stint, pulling a margin on the Monster Mustang before catching the early stoppers.

Feeney found himself stuck behind the Penrite Mustang of Richie Stanaway, which saw Waters close back up on Feeney.

Stanaway would eventually catch the battling James Courtney and Jack Le Brocq, with Feeney and Waters both in tow.

Stanaway bumped his way by Le Brocq after Courtney made his move at Turn 6 on lap 27, before Le Brocq shut the door on Feeney in an awkward moment at Turn 7.

Waters fired into the pit lane to unsuccessfully attempt an undercut, whilst Feeney’s bobble allowed Nick Percat to close.

A combination of a rapid pit stop by Matt Stone Racing and Feeney being slowed by Stanaway and Le Brocq allowed Percat to overcut en route to victory.

Feeney was gracious in defeat, however knew that a golden opportunity to claw back big ground on teammate and points leader Will Brown was missed.

“Congrats to Nick, great job from him and his team, they’ve done a great job all weekend just running by themselves, and to Chaz as well,” said Feeney in PIRTEK Victory Lane.

“Pretty unfortunate not to come away with the win after leading early on, I got caught up with the guys who stopped early, I ran into a couple who were having their own battle.

“But we’ve got a fast car, we probably struggled a little bit after the pit stop, but we’ve still got a great car, still got a pole, still got a trophy at the end of the day."

Whilst Feeney would shake out in effective second on road, a flying Chaz Mostert, on an aggressive three tyre strategy, soon ranged into Feeney’s rear view mirrors.

Having only changed two tyres at his stop, Feeney was powerless to prevent Mostert diving down the inside at Turn 6 on lap 50.

“He was pretty fast at the end, it was a great move under brakes, I couldn’t really do anything about it pretty much.

“Great job to these guys, they’ve been driving awesome so to be up front battling with them is great, but I certainly want to be in front tomorrow.”

Whilst he still gained 33 points on Brown in the title race, Feeney would’ve gained an extra 21 points had he won, a fact that was not lost on the 21-year-old Queenslander.

“Yeah I would have loved to get a win and make it a little bit closer again,” said Feeney.

“It’s good, you take it when you can, when you’re a little bit disappointed with a third you’ve clearly got a good race car.

“I’m certainly looking forward to coming back tomorrow and having another crack.”

Today’s result was Feeney’s first podium since his clean sweep of the race wins in Darwin, and came at an important time for the Red Bull driver to bounce back with a strong result.

“We’re on the podium, we led for quite a lot of the race, so for sure it’s capable of getting on the top step, but we’ve got to be happy with third today, take some good points.

“We were coming seventh back at the last round, so it’s good to be back up on the podium, but still got a bit of work to do.”

Supercars will return on Sunday with Practice 3 at 10:20am AEST, followed by Boost Mobile Qualifying at 12:50pm and Race 18 at 3:05pm.